Too long; didn’t read. It’s an editing term mainly used in journalism when a writer needs to do some trimming. It moved into the vernacular of the internet and is now mainly used in situations when an article or blog post runs on longer than somebody’s attention span.
Wow, thanks for that. I was totally trying to figure out what a Tl-winkd-er was. Doesn’t make what Robyn says any funnier, but at least I understand it now.
Honsetly I would get very upset if a person did that to me in real life. I’m not sure if it’s more because of the rudeness of it or the fact that they aren’t reading me when I’m speaking.
TL;DR is how I feel toward these characters when they’re not involved in relationship drama and they’re talking about a million fandoms I’ve never even heard of. If this comic was only that, I probably wouldn’t read.
And yet, there are others who prefer the toy jokes the series was founded on over the relationship drama. Willis does try to play to both crowds when possible.
Since the drama tag got pulled, I’ve come to see Shortpacked as Willis’s vehicle for riffing on whatever he feels like at the moment. Sometimes that’s relationship drama; sometimes that’s Transformers and Batman jokes. I’m not saying there’s not a certain element of “Hmm, haven’t checked in on Leslie’s love life in a while” that keeps things balanced, but I don’t know that it’s all that calculated.
Of course, having said that, now Willis will probably pop in and go “WTF are you talking about?”
well I saw the pilot episode at comic con .It seemed to be setting up conflict between the brothers and an open love romance possible too. And it did look pretty damn awesome visually.
Just watched it, thought it was very good and could grow to be better. The characters are about as shallow as their counterparts from the 80s. Maybe the problem is that Snarf doesnt talk? Or maybe he is comparing with the latest He-man installation? Couldnt follow that one past the first episode, but at least the fighting scenes on the new thundercats are better.
I am quite excited for the new Thundercats and think the new direction for the characters looks very promising from the ten minutes or so of footage I’ve seen so far.
I disagree with Ethan as I did like the new designs, but I am really hoping the story and execution of it to be good.
Funny though , the first time I saw designs for Avatar at the SDComic Con I thought something very similar to Ethan in the first panel… oh how wrong I was… O.o
I can’t agree – after all, a bad adaptation doesn’t actually *change* the original in any way.
(And has the “Shamalamadingdong” joke ever actually been funny, or did people just sign a contract to use it at least once every time they make fun of him?)
I think you’re thinking about it the wrong way. For me, TLA wasn’t a move adaptation and more of a bad fan-fic. I left towards the end, because frankly, I didn’t care to watch it. I didn’t hate it, I just thought it was garbage. So I left the theater and biked home thinking about a much better movie I recently saw. So if it helps, just think of it as a bad fan-fiction, because that is basically what almost all bad adaptations are.
Exceptions include most incarnations of “Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy”. Of course, there it can be a bit hard to tease out which is the original and which is the adaptation…
Did you see the “Legend of Korra” trailer that was as SDCC? Flippin’ amazing. All of my woes concerning M Night Shaderpaderp’s movie vanished into distant memory.
I’ve seen the new Thundercats, and it’s pretty good. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel…which makes it kinda like every other action cartoon on the air in the last couple years.
I don’t know if it’s fair to say the new Thundercats lacks personality based on the few clips and promos we’ve seen, most of which seem to empathize showing off the redesigned main characters in action and setting up the story. It looks pretty good to me, and I can’t wait to watch the first two episodes tomorrow night. But if Ethan doesn’t care for it, to each their own. At least he won’t have to worry about collecting the toys.
That said, “kitty He-Man” does sum up Thundercats — both the original and the new version — all too well.
I really hate the new ThunderCats designs. The old series was a huge part of my cartoon habits. That said, I will give it a chance, just as I gave a chance to He-Man 2002 and TMNT 2003.
Meh on the new Thundercats, I never really got to see them, since I wasn’t around in the 80s. I grew up with the TMNT and He-Man reboots, as well as Transformers: Armada. Those were totally awesome when I was that age, but now, looking back, they seem a bit childish, since they were meant for children.
And then the more adult and mature Transformers: Prime rolls along, and there’s all these people bitching about how “dark” and “sulking” it is. What really bugs me is that these are the same people who were bitching about Animated being too “light-hearted” and “childish”.
On that note, anyone else excited for the new toyline for TF:Prime?
Well I’m still looking forward to it! It’s unfair to compare anything to Avatar: The Last Airbender, ’cause nothing could possibly live up to that awesome example of what proper planning can get you. I don’t completely doubt that Thundercats will end up being disappointing, but at least the clips so far have been a little interesting. I’ll reserve judgement until I see more than a couple full episodes.
Today feels like friday to me anyway, so this comic didn’t feel out of place (though tomorrow will feel weird).
Anyway, I LIKE the old Thundercats, but this new one looks like it’ll be better. I don’t like the old Thundercats as much as Transformers, G.I.JOE, He-man, or Smurfs. Thundercats is just sort of… there.
Thundercats were black though. Evenn hidden under orange fur I had to appreciate that. New Thundercats have a vibe of white dudes cosplaying anime kittens. It’s just not the same.
Funnily enough, I don’t consider Thundercats and He-Man to be paticularly similar at all, aside from the basic details of “both are action shows that star a male character who uses a sword that transforms-” and there the resemblance abruptly ends, because “itself” and “its carrier” are rather dissimilar. As is everything else: one’s apparently on earth and the other isn’t, one stars aliens and the other doesn’t (discounting the queen), one has no character development whatsoever and the other has a teeny bit… I guess they both have comic sidekicks too. Oh my the clonage.
I saw the new Thundercats special at Comic Con and thought it was great. Not boring at all. To be honest I got bored with TF:Prime pretty quickly (and I’m a 100x bigger Transformers fan).
I love Transformers, I really really do, and Prime might be the only TF cartoon I hate. At least I could make fun of the other bad ones. Prime is, without a doubt, one of the most boring cartoons I have ever had the displeasure of watching. The fight scenes are boring, the characters are boring, EVERYTHING is boring. Even the comic relief is boring. It’s like watching paint dry… It tries to be good but there’s something so off about it that it makes it a chore to sit through an episode.
The bots just don’t have that family feel they had in Animated, or in well any of the past shows. They’re just five people in a room together. And then we have the humans. Jack doesn’t have a personality. Raf is just awful. He can use computers better then Ratchet, he’s the only one able to understand Bumblebee, he has no real faults that hinder him (As his size has yet to be an issue from what I remember), and his relationship with Bumblebee is almost entirely implied and only one episode touches on it and he’s almost never seen with the guy. The other two at least have tons of content that shows that they’re close to their bots. Miko ends up being the only somewhat interesting one, and mostly because she’s just a hypercharged Sari.
At least Thundercats looks pretty. Prime is just bland overall with terrible backgrounds and decent bot designs. It makes me sick to say I’m more excited for new Thundercats show tonight then I am for a new Prime episode ever.
I hope Ethan is wrong & Thundercats is worth watching. The promos I’ve seen suggest as much.
I know that people must have been camping out in the room & might not even have been there specifically for T Cats. So it’s possible the early reviews might be tainted. Not sure, but I plan to check it out for myself.
Maybe I could find a YouTube of the actual CC screening, but I can wait.
I can’t decide whether he’s bashing Avatar the cartoon or Airbender the movie.
THEREFORE I AM TORN because on one hand, I’m offended and on the other I agree. Until I know what that middle panel means, I don’t know how to feel about it.
He is bashing Thundercats. Ethan’s saying ‘The Avatar cartoon was pretty and had wonderful characters; Thundercats is pretty and has boring characters’.
This has been your daily dose of my compulsive need to be right on the internet.
It was shown at San Diego Comic Con 2011. I’ve avoided the reviews, because I didn’t get to see it & I’m not inclined to find some bootlegged copy.
Still, I hope Ethan’s wrong & the show is better than hoped. Heck, it might even be potentially fun to have Ethan be forced to appologize to the Internets. Just because his views on things tend to be uh.. preachy & I wouldn’t think he’s seen the Thundercats thing either.
(I mean, it was shown at Comic Con & Willis didn’t go. Heck, I was at Comic Con & couldn’t even get in.)
Not saying that the show might not be horrible, but I at least hope that Ethan is a bit uniformed here. At least, I think this remake might be a tad better than the He-Man one.
I’m rather surprised you mentioned Avatar in a comic without mentioning that their is a new trailer for Avatar: The Legend of Korra out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmsT63BgFPw
Honestly, if it is interesting as they’re trying to put it, I hope it does better than the He-Man revival did. Wish the He-Man revival did better than it did. The difference here being that I actually grew up watching Thundercats and not He-Man.
Although I was a big Thundercats fan as a kid (there exists footage of me in my PJs running around with a plastic sword shouting “Thunder! Thunder! Thundercats!”), I kind of have to agree with Ethan here.
I can remember individual episodes of He-Man, Transformers, GI Joe, even Ducktales that I last saw 20+ years ago. Other than the pilot, which I rewatched in college, I don’t think I could describe a single Thundercats episode.
It pretty much can’t be worse than the original Thundercats. Look, I watched that (and Silverhawks, fwiw) religiously as a kid. But no amount of nostalgia can make me ignore how horrendous it was. It’s a shame children’s programming is usually so bad. Since children will watch anything, the people making this drek could at least make it tolerable for the parents who have to suffer through it. It’s happened occasionally; I just wish it was the norm.
I will reiterate, once again: this from a guy who likes Beast Wars.
I don’t know what Thundercats premiere YOU watched “Ethan,” but after seeing it tonight, I can say for a fact that the show was extremely solid, and shows incredible promise. It doesn’t suck a hundredth as bad as the original (and I LIKED that show, mind you, but I hold NO illusions, it was BAD), and the characters, while a bit stiff at first, are fully credible and show hints of impressive depth.
One of the major problems is that everyone’s expecting this show to BE Avatar. Hey, guess what: it’s NOT. SURPRISE! Nor should it be. Putting aside that Avatar is pretty much an impossible standard, being easily one of (if not the) best US animated series ever made, but the two shows are completely different beasts. In TC, most of the cast is far older that 12 years of age. They don’t act like kids, they’re not SUPPOSED to be having wacky adventures and playing games at every opportunity, it’s a totally different story, world, and attitude. It’s fanboyish and stupid to try and compare the two.
The animation was excellent, the story setup was epic, and the characters are believable and have plenty of room for growth. I’d say that’s a winning combination. It wasn’t perfect, mind you (I found some of the editing to be a bit rough, some of the scene shifts were abrupt, and Tygra’s a bit too high on the dickhead scale), but overall, it was a worthy successor, and I’m looking forward to tuning in every week.
But then, I don’t gauge the quality of a show based on an unreachable pedestal, nor am I biased by an unhealthy obsession with giant robots that prevents me from objectively recognizing quality programming. Unlike Ethan.
Nah… Just kidding. I actually agree. I thought it was pretty good, especially compared to the original. The world felt a lot more fleshed out and complex. Giving the other beast races a real reason to be angry with the cat races was a nice touch, and is much better than the old “all non-cats are just evil” we pretty much had in the old series.
As for the complaints that the characters seemed undeveloped, well, it seemed to be intentional. The first episode was intended to get across the back story, place the characters in the world, and start the main plot line, so there was only a little room for character development. Now that the ball is rolling on the plot, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ll see it transition from 90% back-story and plot development, to having a good bit more character development in the “B story” in each episode. That may be a common formula, but it works pretty well.
In any case, even if it doesn’t pan out, it looks like a promising start. I’ll certainly be watching more episodes to see how it goes.
Avatar isn’t an impossible standard. That’s like saying once a teacher has one A+ student they should never attempt to teach well enough to have another.
Sure, it’s not entirely in the teacher’s hands, just as no director (or even director-producer team) can completely assure himself a perfect set of writers and voice actors. But unless you’re looking to be a crap-peddler you endeavor to make something really excellent.
Uhm, I was being semi-rhetorical for simplicity’s sake. Saying “Avatar is an impossible standard” is easier and gets the point across just as well as saying, “Avatar is an exceedingly high quality show that almost no creative team currently has the ability to top, although it’s entirely possible someone will at a later date, assuming they have the proper talent, direction, art studio, and intellectual property.”
The POINT was, people have a tendency to unfairly compare every new genre property that comes along to the very best example of a property in that same genre, regardless of whether or not the comparison is valid. Hence, “Thundercats is no Avatar.” Yeah, we already knew that.
No offense, Willis, but you sing Transformers praises all the time. I hate to be the one to point this out…but Transformers and TCats were 1980s cartoons–which means that like EVERY other of the bazillion shows we watched growing up in the 80s, they were pretty much 50% toy commercial, 40% Action, 10% Ethics and morals (so the parents would let them watch it and buy the toys.)
Dont get me wrong, I still plug in the 80s cartoons from time to time…but even I see them for what they are–corny toy commercials. That being said, I try to give each new “remake” of my childhood a try. This is…maybe the second “series premiere” I’ve actually gotten up from going, “Holy Shit. I really want to watch that…when it comes on.” Not on youtube, or justin.tv when I think about it. I’d have to say it stayed true to the original essense, the action, while ditching the corniness in favor of what looks like real character depth. I’m particularly interested in seeing where it goes.
I’ve never heard of a Spartakus & the Sun Beneath the Sea toy or a Belle & Sebastian action figure.
Come to think of it, most of the toons I watched at the time — and this didn’t include He-Man, Transformers, Thundercats or the likes — had very little in associated merch. At most they were selling novelizations and soundtrack discs.
One thing I always find amusing when I make fun of an 80s cartoon is when someone inevitably says “But you like TRANSFORMERS!”, never remembering that, dude, I am not a fan of the original cartoon.
Eh. Saw the new TC cartoon. Wasn’t expecting much. Liked it well enough for what it was. I mean, It’s no Gargoyles, no Avatar, but there isn’t a Gargoyles or Avatar caliber show on the air right now, least not on the channels I can pick up. The pilot at least was a perfectly watchable fantasy adventure show. It fills a gap in my animation diet until Korra’s released, something that Adventure Time, for all it’s a better show, comes close to but doesn’t quite fit.
The new Thundercats was boring for the first fifteen minutes and then it became completely awesome. I find it to be much better then the original much MUCH better. So I still completely disagree. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but in mine the new Thundercats is good.
Oh it will probably be better then Avatar too early to tell. Avatar was good but way over rated. Too much lost potential and a very disappointing third season. The new Thundercats can easily be a better show.
I’ll agree that the 3rd season of Avatar was a bit of a disappointment (especially compared to the total mastery of writing, pacing, storytelling, characterization, and animation throughout the second season), and that the Thundercats premier seems a bit underrated, but really? Easily better then Avatar? Hardly. TC looks like it could be pretty good, but still, so far very generic, and very little in the way of personality from the lead cast, especially by comparison to Avatar, even just the pilot.
We’ll see where it goes from here, though. It could easily get better as it goes on.
The thing about Avatar is the second season was the ONLY thing that lives up to the hype. The first season, even at the admissions of its creators, was mediocre outside a few episodes. The third season was just as bad using their time poorly at every turn. Season 2 was all that show had, and most fans seem to ignores the shows faults because of how good season 2 was. Hell even season 2 had its low points in its first half. The show just wasn’t as great objectively as people like to think. I liked the show, but it’s ridiculous to say it’s the benchmark of modern day action cartoons.
In Avatar’s first season Aang, Sokka, and Katara were all over the place with their personalities and never consistent until half way in. As the staff said, they didn’t even know what to do with Sokka, yet still we had the guy in the cast from day 1 despite that fact. In season 1 he was mostly the whiner who would be there to get a lesson shoehorned in. Late into season 1, but more established in Season 2, is when he becomes the sarcastic plan guy. Until that point? He was just the shows buttmonkey. Aang had similar issues where he flip-flops between being okay with his new surroundings, and feeling uncomfortable in them.
In this though all of the main cast was pretty sold in characterization. Each member is established and we learn a bit about them, but not too much. The staff actually made sure each character had a purpose and a reason to be with one another. Sure it wasn’t groundbreaking, but neither was the Avatar premier. Unlike Avatar though, it was completely believable. In Avatar two characters happen to randomly find a kid in an iceberg by accidently freeing him and then randomly the character who has spent years searching for him just happens to be in the area and luckily there isn’t any reason or conflict that causes an issue for those two to not travel with Aang and then everyone gets along just fine! Everything is just coincidence and nothing has a reason behind it. In Thundercats next to EVERYTHING had a reason for happening that was believable, the only character that comes off awkward is Cheetara following Lion-O around but when you consider that her job as a cleric is to protect the kid it makes a bit more sense. It was a good premier, and can easily become better then Avatar.
Woah woah woah, double return those paragraphs man! I agree, season two was way better then seasons one or three. In season one it took them a while to catch their stride, to nail down all the elements, and in season three their pacing went to garbage and the show unraveled rather then ending.
That said, the first episode still had more personality, more vivacity then the thundercats premier. The characters may have been not quite as coherent, but at least they were there. The Thundercats premier has some personality for the royal brothers, but even then it’s kind of generic, and the rest of the cast is as one note as you could get so far. It’s competent so far, but not exceptional yet.
Same with the pacing, and the thematic coherency. Mumra was mentioned once or twice, and then just appeared. Hardly any build up to him, we didn’t get to see him revived. Why is he the leader of the lizards? Why did they need him when they were busting face with guns, bombs, and those over-the-top, out-of-place cgi warmechs? Did mumra give them the technology? He’s a being of magic, why would he have or need it? Couldn’t he solve his crippling sun-weakness with a techno-suit?
These aren’t questions that have me glued to my seat with anticipation. They aren’t mysteries to unravel. They just seem to be frayed ends. They could be tied up later, but they can’t go back later to fix the timing on mumra’s reveal.
The show could easily get better – many shows take a few episodes to hit their stride, and we haven’t even seen the whole cast brought together yet to see how well they play off each other. Heck, we haven’t even met panthro yet. It could pick up, it just hasn’t yet, and it might not, either. I’m interested in seeing where the show goes, but it’ll have to work to bring itself up to the level of Avatar or Gargoyles, particularly in the level of getting some life into their characters, which don’t really have that spark of life yet.
In short, it could get to the point of being better then Avatar, I don’t don’t think that’s as likely as you seem to.
I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think most of those questions could be answered without working in Panthro and/or a flashback, and condensed the conclusion already is, I doubt they could do that and still fit 43 minutes. Plus, two of them don’t really make sense. There’s no reason to assume that magic and technology would be mutually exclusive, or that there’s a technological solution to Mumm-Ra’s sun weakness.
Me, my only complaint is that the dialogue was riddled with cliches, which does make them really boring to listen to. Like you say, there’s some spark between the princes, but everyone else comes off real flat. I’m also hoping the show will find its feet in a few episodes.
Also… I don’t care how CGI they are, Lizardfolk in mecha is wonderful.
I think you misunderstand me. I said is easily “Can” be better, not that it is better. No no Right now Avatar is the far better show. i was talking from a potential stand point. That if it reaches it’s full potential as a show it could be better then Avatar. A show which in my opinion failed to reach it’s full potential.
Really I would rate the first two episodes of Avatar and the first two episodes of Thundercats 2011 an 8/10. And I would rate Avatar as a whole an 8.5/10 or a nine.
It is too early to tell if Thundercats is a better show but it has the potential to be.
so, I just saw it and I’m relatively sure that was the premiere.. did you post this comic with the hope it’d be accurate, but having not seen it before? Because it was ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS. So well-done it -hurts-.
Well if Willis was at Comic Con San Diego then there is a very good possibility that he saw it there. Even then I’m sure there were ways to watch the trailer.
Gotta agree with most of the commenters here – the premiere was great and showed a lot of potential. Did Willis watch the premiere before drawing this, or just the trailers? New Thundercats seems to have much more personality than the old one.
In retrospect, you know what’s hilarious about this comic?
The animation in Thundercats wasn’t pretty at all. Everyone just remembers the opening theme. THAT was gorgeous. Everything else was 80′s standard. It was better animated than He-Man, and about on par with Transformers.
You want the best animated 80s Hasbro show? Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light
It’s so true it hurts.
Sadly, I know people who think two words is too long.
Pfffft. Try reading this story. THAT is some serious TL;DR!
http://www.sailorranko.com/novel.htm
Warning: contains action, romance, drama, comedy, Sailor Moon, Ranma 1/2, a fear of cats, and waaaay too many chapters for most people*.
*thisstatementistalkingaboutallpeopleingeneral.Theremightinfactbethosewhocouldreadthruthis,eveniftheydon’tcareabouteithersailormoonorranma1/2.Ifyouthnkthiswarningmessageistoolong,you’veneverseenthewarningforamajorchipcompany.Enjoyreading,ifyou’relikeme.
I’m sure I’ve read fanfiction just as long, if not longer…
I just used this analogy on Eric. TIMING.
Off topic, but have you seen this? If not, you should totally see this.
Spoiler: TRANSFORMING TRANSFORMERS COSTUME.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qz5Mw9LsbyY&feature=player_embedded
Totally Lame; don’t repeat?
Too long; didn’t read. It’s an editing term mainly used in journalism when a writer needs to do some trimming. It moved into the vernacular of the internet and is now mainly used in situations when an article or blog post runs on longer than somebody’s attention span.
Wow, thanks for that. I was totally trying to figure out what a Tl-winkd-er was. Doesn’t make what Robyn says any funnier, but at least I understand it now.
TL;DR
The problem being people with laughably short attention spans…like Robin
nah, the problem being self-obsessed nerds who think anything they have to say is interesting to other people
All I wanna know is, does Mumm-Ra still sound like he gargles gravel?
interesting fact, in ancient times people would practice speaking with rocks in their mouth to improve their public speaking and enunciation.
The rain in Spain falls mainly on the plain.
The planes in Spain fall mainly in the rain.
Honsetly I would get very upset if a person did that to me in real life. I’m not sure if it’s more because of the rudeness of it or the fact that they aren’t reading me when I’m speaking.
TL;DR is how I feel toward these characters when they’re not involved in relationship drama and they’re talking about a million fandoms I’ve never even heard of. If this comic was only that, I probably wouldn’t read.
tl;dr
And yet, there are others who prefer the toy jokes the series was founded on over the relationship drama. Willis does try to play to both crowds when possible.
It’s nice to know that Willis swings both ways in that respect then.
I was attracted to this site by the comic strip parodies (Funky Cancercancer) and stayed for the relationship drama.
Since the drama tag got pulled, I’ve come to see Shortpacked as Willis’s vehicle for riffing on whatever he feels like at the moment. Sometimes that’s relationship drama; sometimes that’s Transformers and Batman jokes. I’m not saying there’s not a certain element of “Hmm, haven’t checked in on Leslie’s love life in a while” that keeps things balanced, but I don’t know that it’s all that calculated.
Of course, having said that, now Willis will probably pop in and go “WTF are you talking about?”
The inversion, wherein Willis is the one to ask “Whatchu talkin’ bout?” terrifies me.
I personally came here for the batman jokes.
And here I’m super excited about the new Thundercats. I think it looks great. Ah well, to each their own.
I think that’s the complaint. It looks amazing. Is there any character to it?
well I saw the pilot episode at comic con .It seemed to be setting up conflict between the brothers and an open love romance possible too. And it did look pretty damn awesome visually.
Just watched it, thought it was very good and could grow to be better. The characters are about as shallow as their counterparts from the 80s. Maybe the problem is that Snarf doesnt talk? Or maybe he is comparing with the latest He-man installation? Couldnt follow that one past the first episode, but at least the fighting scenes on the new thundercats are better.
This is a bit odd.
First time around, I read that as, “Hello Kitty He-Man.”
awesometonium
I am quite excited for the new Thundercats and think the new direction for the characters looks very promising from the ten minutes or so of footage I’ve seen so far.
I disagree with Ethan as I did like the new designs, but I am really hoping the story and execution of it to be good.
Funny though , the first time I saw designs for Avatar at the SDComic Con I thought something very similar to Ethan in the first panel… oh how wrong I was… O.o
I didnt even know they w making a new thunder cats.. nor do I care.
Didn’t care for it much.
Its hard to take Avatar seriously after what M Night Smalamadingdong did to the movie.
I can’t agree – after all, a bad adaptation doesn’t actually *change* the original in any way.
(And has the “Shamalamadingdong” joke ever actually been funny, or did people just sign a contract to use it at least once every time they make fun of him?)
I prefer Penny Arcade’s option: M Night Shamwow.
Contract. Signed in triplicate. And with that said…
“Shamalamadingdong.”
There. Legal obligation is complete.
Fail sandwich with weak sauce son.
Did the original Star Wars trilogy stop being awesome because of Jar jar?
Did Legend of Zelda stop being awesome because of LoZ: CDi series?
Transformers is RUINED FOREVER!
Everything is ruined forever always. Until the End of Time.
I think you’re thinking about it the wrong way. For me, TLA wasn’t a move adaptation and more of a bad fan-fic. I left towards the end, because frankly, I didn’t care to watch it. I didn’t hate it, I just thought it was garbage. So I left the theater and biked home thinking about a much better movie I recently saw. So if it helps, just think of it as a bad fan-fiction, because that is basically what almost all bad adaptations are.
That’s what most good adaptions are too.
Exceptions include most incarnations of “Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy”. Of course, there it can be a bit hard to tease out which is the original and which is the adaptation…
Most good adaptations are bad fanfic?
Did you see the “Legend of Korra” trailer that was as SDCC? Flippin’ amazing. All of my woes concerning M Night Shaderpaderp’s movie vanished into distant memory.
I haven’t seen an episode yet, but this comic was pretty much my exact impression from the commercials. Not promising.
I guess Robin is still unhappy with her relationship problems with Leslie to care about some 80s cartoon.
I’ve seen the new Thundercats, and it’s pretty good. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel…which makes it kinda like every other action cartoon on the air in the last couple years.
I don’t know if it’s fair to say the new Thundercats lacks personality based on the few clips and promos we’ve seen, most of which seem to empathize showing off the redesigned main characters in action and setting up the story. It looks pretty good to me, and I can’t wait to watch the first two episodes tomorrow night. But if Ethan doesn’t care for it, to each their own. At least he won’t have to worry about collecting the toys.
That said, “kitty He-Man” does sum up Thundercats — both the original and the new version — all too well.
I really hate the new ThunderCats designs. The old series was a huge part of my cartoon habits. That said, I will give it a chance, just as I gave a chance to He-Man 2002 and TMNT 2003.
Meh on the new Thundercats, I never really got to see them, since I wasn’t around in the 80s. I grew up with the TMNT and He-Man reboots, as well as Transformers: Armada. Those were totally awesome when I was that age, but now, looking back, they seem a bit childish, since they were meant for children.
And then the more adult and mature Transformers: Prime rolls along, and there’s all these people bitching about how “dark” and “sulking” it is. What really bugs me is that these are the same people who were bitching about Animated being too “light-hearted” and “childish”.
On that note, anyone else excited for the new toyline for TF:Prime?
Don’t get excited about it yet. It’s not ’til December. You’ll drive yourself crazy.
I happened to LIKE Animated, damn it. Prime is good, but I’m not as excited about it as I was about Animated.
Oddly enough, I’m waiting anxiously for more news about Rescue Bots. There’s basically no info out there whatsoever, and it’s kinda frustrating.
Eh, I liked Animated too. I’m just way more excited for TF:Prime.
And isn’t rescue bots like GoBots, but with actual Transformers?
Yes, it’s a similar premise, but I never saw the Go-Bots cartoon, so I don’t have to carry any bad memories of it.
Plus I’m hoping they realize that grown-up transformers fans might check it out at least once, and put some effort into it.
…Plus I like the way it looks and, honestly, the lack of information is driving me crazy all by itself.
Well I’m still looking forward to it! It’s unfair to compare anything to Avatar: The Last Airbender, ’cause nothing could possibly live up to that awesome example of what proper planning can get you. I don’t completely doubt that Thundercats will end up being disappointing, but at least the clips so far have been a little interesting. I’ll reserve judgement until I see more than a couple full episodes.
i’m very happy to see friday’s comic up today. when both your strips are on a MWF schedule, it makes tuesday and thursday painfully slow.
Today feels like friday to me anyway, so this comic didn’t feel out of place (though tomorrow will feel weird).
Anyway, I LIKE the old Thundercats, but this new one looks like it’ll be better. I don’t like the old Thundercats as much as Transformers, G.I.JOE, He-man, or Smurfs. Thundercats is just sort of… there.
You lost me with He-Man and Smurfs.
I’ve always liked Thundercats more than He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, which is odd, when the TC were in a way a He-Man ripoff.
-airfox
It was pretty much already kitty he-man, right? So now it’s kitty he-man with pretty pretty graphics.. like the 2002-ish he-man series? ^^’
Kitty He-Man…hmmm…
“I are Serious Cat, prince of the interwubs and defender of cheezburgers.
Fabulous secret noms were revealed to me the day I held aloft my Invisible Bike and said “I Has a Flavor!”
I became Ceiling Cat, the Most Dangerous Box in the universe!”
No…no. I apologize for this whole post. I don’t know what I was thinking.
Why apologize? You just reminded me of a video I now need to watch again.
Is it terribly wrong Doctor, that I actually giggled at that. Would that make Skeletor Basement Cat?
One does not apologize for Internet-meme brilliance. One merely unleashes it upon the world and watches it wreak havoc.
I hate you and love you for getting that one directly on the nose…. Thundercats was He-Man with Cat Fursonas.
Damn your killing of many childhoods.
Thundercats were black though. Evenn hidden under orange fur I had to appreciate that. New Thundercats have a vibe of white dudes cosplaying anime kittens. It’s just not the same.
In that second panel it looks like Robin is shouting in Klingon. “Tul’Drr!”
Yea, I pretty much always thought of Thundercats as He-Man furries.
Funnily enough, I don’t consider Thundercats and He-Man to be paticularly similar at all, aside from the basic details of “both are action shows that star a male character who uses a sword that transforms-” and there the resemblance abruptly ends, because “itself” and “its carrier” are rather dissimilar. As is everything else: one’s apparently on earth and the other isn’t, one stars aliens and the other doesn’t (discounting the queen), one has no character development whatsoever and the other has a teeny bit… I guess they both have comic sidekicks too. Oh my the clonage.
I saw the new Thundercats special at Comic Con and thought it was great. Not boring at all. To be honest I got bored with TF:Prime pretty quickly (and I’m a 100x bigger Transformers fan).
I love Transformers, I really really do, and Prime might be the only TF cartoon I hate. At least I could make fun of the other bad ones. Prime is, without a doubt, one of the most boring cartoons I have ever had the displeasure of watching. The fight scenes are boring, the characters are boring, EVERYTHING is boring. Even the comic relief is boring. It’s like watching paint dry… It tries to be good but there’s something so off about it that it makes it a chore to sit through an episode.
The bots just don’t have that family feel they had in Animated, or in well any of the past shows. They’re just five people in a room together. And then we have the humans. Jack doesn’t have a personality. Raf is just awful. He can use computers better then Ratchet, he’s the only one able to understand Bumblebee, he has no real faults that hinder him (As his size has yet to be an issue from what I remember), and his relationship with Bumblebee is almost entirely implied and only one episode touches on it and he’s almost never seen with the guy. The other two at least have tons of content that shows that they’re close to their bots. Miko ends up being the only somewhat interesting one, and mostly because she’s just a hypercharged Sari.
At least Thundercats looks pretty. Prime is just bland overall with terrible backgrounds and decent bot designs. It makes me sick to say I’m more excited for new Thundercats show tonight then I am for a new Prime episode ever.
I hope Ethan is wrong & Thundercats is worth watching. The promos I’ve seen suggest as much.
I know that people must have been camping out in the room & might not even have been there specifically for T Cats. So it’s possible the early reviews might be tainted. Not sure, but I plan to check it out for myself.
Maybe I could find a YouTube of the actual CC screening, but I can wait.
I can’t decide whether he’s bashing Avatar the cartoon or Airbender the movie.
THEREFORE I AM TORN because on one hand, I’m offended and on the other I agree. Until I know what that middle panel means, I don’t know how to feel about it.
He is bashing Thundercats. Ethan’s saying ‘The Avatar cartoon was pretty and had wonderful characters; Thundercats is pretty and has boring characters’.
This has been your daily dose of my compulsive need to be right on the internet.
ALSO if you are offended by someone not liking a tv show then that is very silly.
oh crap i can’t stop
You would posit that there are matters of greater import to be offended about?
Yes.
Of course! Action figures!
Wait, you’ve already seen the new Thundercats? Isn’t the premiere tommorow?
It was shown at San Diego Comic Con 2011. I’ve avoided the reviews, because I didn’t get to see it & I’m not inclined to find some bootlegged copy.
Still, I hope Ethan’s wrong & the show is better than hoped. Heck, it might even be potentially fun to have Ethan be forced to appologize to the Internets. Just because his views on things tend to be uh.. preachy & I wouldn’t think he’s seen the Thundercats thing either.
(I mean, it was shown at Comic Con & Willis didn’t go. Heck, I was at Comic Con & couldn’t even get in.)
Not saying that the show might not be horrible, but I at least hope that Ethan is a bit uniformed here. At least, I think this remake might be a tad better than the He-Man one.
Mostly I am SO EXCITED for Legend of Korra. Eeeee!!!
I’m rather surprised you mentioned Avatar in a comic without mentioning that their is a new trailer for Avatar: The Legend of Korra out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmsT63BgFPw
No point trying to put the cat back into the bag. So to speak.
You could try putting lightning in a bottle, but I’m not sure if that would contain the thunder.
I can’t disagree more, I am hyped really hyped for the new Thundercats and I HATE the original.
Shouldn’t it be tl;dl?
Honestly, if it is interesting as they’re trying to put it, I hope it does better than the He-Man revival did. Wish the He-Man revival did better than it did. The difference here being that I actually grew up watching Thundercats and not He-Man.
Always thought the proper version of tl;dr in speech was to interrupt with “You done talking?”
And when the other person responds to interrupt again with
“I’m done listening.”
Although I was a big Thundercats fan as a kid (there exists footage of me in my PJs running around with a plastic sword shouting “Thunder! Thunder! Thundercats!”), I kind of have to agree with Ethan here.
I can remember individual episodes of He-Man, Transformers, GI Joe, even Ducktales that I last saw 20+ years ago. Other than the pilot, which I rewatched in college, I don’t think I could describe a single Thundercats episode.
I enjoyed it plenty, it just left no impression.
Isn’t that how the last air bender movie turned out, all of the characters having much less personality than they did in the cartoon?
Robin is looking particularly derp this evening.
It pretty much can’t be worse than the original Thundercats. Look, I watched that (and Silverhawks, fwiw) religiously as a kid. But no amount of nostalgia can make me ignore how horrendous it was. It’s a shame children’s programming is usually so bad. Since children will watch anything, the people making this drek could at least make it tolerable for the parents who have to suffer through it. It’s happened occasionally; I just wish it was the norm.
I will reiterate, once again: this from a guy who likes Beast Wars.
I don’t know what Thundercats premiere YOU watched “Ethan,” but after seeing it tonight, I can say for a fact that the show was extremely solid, and shows incredible promise. It doesn’t suck a hundredth as bad as the original (and I LIKED that show, mind you, but I hold NO illusions, it was BAD), and the characters, while a bit stiff at first, are fully credible and show hints of impressive depth.
One of the major problems is that everyone’s expecting this show to BE Avatar. Hey, guess what: it’s NOT. SURPRISE! Nor should it be. Putting aside that Avatar is pretty much an impossible standard, being easily one of (if not the) best US animated series ever made, but the two shows are completely different beasts. In TC, most of the cast is far older that 12 years of age. They don’t act like kids, they’re not SUPPOSED to be having wacky adventures and playing games at every opportunity, it’s a totally different story, world, and attitude. It’s fanboyish and stupid to try and compare the two.
The animation was excellent, the story setup was epic, and the characters are believable and have plenty of room for growth. I’d say that’s a winning combination. It wasn’t perfect, mind you (I found some of the editing to be a bit rough, some of the scene shifts were abrupt, and Tygra’s a bit too high on the dickhead scale), but overall, it was a worthy successor, and I’m looking forward to tuning in every week.
But then, I don’t gauge the quality of a show based on an unreachable pedestal, nor am I biased by an unhealthy obsession with giant robots that prevents me from objectively recognizing quality programming. Unlike Ethan.
TL;DR
Nah… Just kidding. I actually agree. I thought it was pretty good, especially compared to the original. The world felt a lot more fleshed out and complex. Giving the other beast races a real reason to be angry with the cat races was a nice touch, and is much better than the old “all non-cats are just evil” we pretty much had in the old series.
As for the complaints that the characters seemed undeveloped, well, it seemed to be intentional. The first episode was intended to get across the back story, place the characters in the world, and start the main plot line, so there was only a little room for character development. Now that the ball is rolling on the plot, I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ll see it transition from 90% back-story and plot development, to having a good bit more character development in the “B story” in each episode. That may be a common formula, but it works pretty well.
In any case, even if it doesn’t pan out, it looks like a promising start. I’ll certainly be watching more episodes to see how it goes.
P.S. Also, Snarf can’t speak. Yay!
Avatar isn’t an impossible standard. That’s like saying once a teacher has one A+ student they should never attempt to teach well enough to have another.
Sure, it’s not entirely in the teacher’s hands, just as no director (or even director-producer team) can completely assure himself a perfect set of writers and voice actors. But unless you’re looking to be a crap-peddler you endeavor to make something really excellent.
Uhm, I was being semi-rhetorical for simplicity’s sake. Saying “Avatar is an impossible standard” is easier and gets the point across just as well as saying, “Avatar is an exceedingly high quality show that almost no creative team currently has the ability to top, although it’s entirely possible someone will at a later date, assuming they have the proper talent, direction, art studio, and intellectual property.”
The POINT was, people have a tendency to unfairly compare every new genre property that comes along to the very best example of a property in that same genre, regardless of whether or not the comparison is valid. Hence, “Thundercats is no Avatar.” Yeah, we already knew that.
WOW was Ethan ever wrong. Thundercats was amazing.
And I HATE the Thundercats!
hay Beast Wars was bad ass…and i like the new TC
No offense, Willis, but you sing Transformers praises all the time. I hate to be the one to point this out…but Transformers and TCats were 1980s cartoons–which means that like EVERY other of the bazillion shows we watched growing up in the 80s, they were pretty much 50% toy commercial, 40% Action, 10% Ethics and morals (so the parents would let them watch it and buy the toys.)
Dont get me wrong, I still plug in the 80s cartoons from time to time…but even I see them for what they are–corny toy commercials. That being said, I try to give each new “remake” of my childhood a try. This is…maybe the second “series premiere” I’ve actually gotten up from going, “Holy Shit. I really want to watch that…when it comes on.” Not on youtube, or justin.tv when I think about it. I’d have to say it stayed true to the original essense, the action, while ditching the corniness in favor of what looks like real character depth. I’m particularly interested in seeing where it goes.
I’ve never heard of a Spartakus & the Sun Beneath the Sea toy or a Belle & Sebastian action figure.
Come to think of it, most of the toons I watched at the time — and this didn’t include He-Man, Transformers, Thundercats or the likes — had very little in associated merch. At most they were selling novelizations and soundtrack discs.
One thing I always find amusing when I make fun of an 80s cartoon is when someone inevitably says “But you like TRANSFORMERS!”, never remembering that, dude, I am not a fan of the original cartoon.
Yeah, c’mon guys, know your target! Dinobot SINGULAR, not plural. MUNKY, NOT TRUK!
*runs away, cackling madly*
Eh. Saw the new TC cartoon. Wasn’t expecting much. Liked it well enough for what it was. I mean, It’s no Gargoyles, no Avatar, but there isn’t a Gargoyles or Avatar caliber show on the air right now, least not on the channels I can pick up. The pilot at least was a perfectly watchable fantasy adventure show. It fills a gap in my animation diet until Korra’s released, something that Adventure Time, for all it’s a better show, comes close to but doesn’t quite fit.
The new Thundercats was boring for the first fifteen minutes and then it became completely awesome. I find it to be much better then the original much MUCH better. So I still completely disagree. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but in mine the new Thundercats is good.
Oh it will probably be better then Avatar too early to tell. Avatar was good but way over rated. Too much lost potential and a very disappointing third season. The new Thundercats can easily be a better show.
I’ll agree that the 3rd season of Avatar was a bit of a disappointment (especially compared to the total mastery of writing, pacing, storytelling, characterization, and animation throughout the second season), and that the Thundercats premier seems a bit underrated, but really? Easily better then Avatar? Hardly. TC looks like it could be pretty good, but still, so far very generic, and very little in the way of personality from the lead cast, especially by comparison to Avatar, even just the pilot.
We’ll see where it goes from here, though. It could easily get better as it goes on.
The thing about Avatar is the second season was the ONLY thing that lives up to the hype. The first season, even at the admissions of its creators, was mediocre outside a few episodes. The third season was just as bad using their time poorly at every turn. Season 2 was all that show had, and most fans seem to ignores the shows faults because of how good season 2 was. Hell even season 2 had its low points in its first half. The show just wasn’t as great objectively as people like to think. I liked the show, but it’s ridiculous to say it’s the benchmark of modern day action cartoons.
In Avatar’s first season Aang, Sokka, and Katara were all over the place with their personalities and never consistent until half way in. As the staff said, they didn’t even know what to do with Sokka, yet still we had the guy in the cast from day 1 despite that fact. In season 1 he was mostly the whiner who would be there to get a lesson shoehorned in. Late into season 1, but more established in Season 2, is when he becomes the sarcastic plan guy. Until that point? He was just the shows buttmonkey. Aang had similar issues where he flip-flops between being okay with his new surroundings, and feeling uncomfortable in them.
In this though all of the main cast was pretty sold in characterization. Each member is established and we learn a bit about them, but not too much. The staff actually made sure each character had a purpose and a reason to be with one another. Sure it wasn’t groundbreaking, but neither was the Avatar premier. Unlike Avatar though, it was completely believable. In Avatar two characters happen to randomly find a kid in an iceberg by accidently freeing him and then randomly the character who has spent years searching for him just happens to be in the area and luckily there isn’t any reason or conflict that causes an issue for those two to not travel with Aang and then everyone gets along just fine! Everything is just coincidence and nothing has a reason behind it. In Thundercats next to EVERYTHING had a reason for happening that was believable, the only character that comes off awkward is Cheetara following Lion-O around but when you consider that her job as a cleric is to protect the kid it makes a bit more sense. It was a good premier, and can easily become better then Avatar.
Woah woah woah, double return those paragraphs man! I agree, season two was way better then seasons one or three. In season one it took them a while to catch their stride, to nail down all the elements, and in season three their pacing went to garbage and the show unraveled rather then ending.
That said, the first episode still had more personality, more vivacity then the thundercats premier. The characters may have been not quite as coherent, but at least they were there. The Thundercats premier has some personality for the royal brothers, but even then it’s kind of generic, and the rest of the cast is as one note as you could get so far. It’s competent so far, but not exceptional yet.
Same with the pacing, and the thematic coherency. Mumra was mentioned once or twice, and then just appeared. Hardly any build up to him, we didn’t get to see him revived. Why is he the leader of the lizards? Why did they need him when they were busting face with guns, bombs, and those over-the-top, out-of-place cgi warmechs? Did mumra give them the technology? He’s a being of magic, why would he have or need it? Couldn’t he solve his crippling sun-weakness with a techno-suit?
These aren’t questions that have me glued to my seat with anticipation. They aren’t mysteries to unravel. They just seem to be frayed ends. They could be tied up later, but they can’t go back later to fix the timing on mumra’s reveal.
The show could easily get better – many shows take a few episodes to hit their stride, and we haven’t even seen the whole cast brought together yet to see how well they play off each other. Heck, we haven’t even met panthro yet. It could pick up, it just hasn’t yet, and it might not, either. I’m interested in seeing where the show goes, but it’ll have to work to bring itself up to the level of Avatar or Gargoyles, particularly in the level of getting some life into their characters, which don’t really have that spark of life yet.
In short, it could get to the point of being better then Avatar, I don’t don’t think that’s as likely as you seem to.
Not sure what happened. They were doubled when I submitted them. Odd.
I get where you’re coming from, but I don’t think most of those questions could be answered without working in Panthro and/or a flashback, and condensed the conclusion already is, I doubt they could do that and still fit 43 minutes. Plus, two of them don’t really make sense. There’s no reason to assume that magic and technology would be mutually exclusive, or that there’s a technological solution to Mumm-Ra’s sun weakness.
Me, my only complaint is that the dialogue was riddled with cliches, which does make them really boring to listen to. Like you say, there’s some spark between the princes, but everyone else comes off real flat. I’m also hoping the show will find its feet in a few episodes.
Also… I don’t care how CGI they are, Lizardfolk in mecha is wonderful.
I think you misunderstand me. I said is easily “Can” be better, not that it is better. No no Right now Avatar is the far better show. i was talking from a potential stand point. That if it reaches it’s full potential as a show it could be better then Avatar. A show which in my opinion failed to reach it’s full potential.
Really I would rate the first two episodes of Avatar and the first two episodes of Thundercats 2011 an 8/10. And I would rate Avatar as a whole an 8.5/10 or a nine.
It is too early to tell if Thundercats is a better show but it has the potential to be.
so, I just saw it and I’m relatively sure that was the premiere.. did you post this comic with the hope it’d be accurate, but having not seen it before? Because it was ALL MY HOPES AND DREAMS. So well-done it -hurts-.
Well if Willis was at Comic Con San Diego then there is a very good possibility that he saw it there. Even then I’m sure there were ways to watch the trailer.
Saw it. Liked it. No giant wall of text for me =P
Why do I always get Sodomuffin as an avatar whenever I post here? It’s like Walky pre-set it for me, knowing I am an MLP FiM fan…
I thought it was really well done. I’ll be watching, for sure.
It was enjoyable. Definite sausage party with a bit too much testosterone for my liking, but I’ll stick around.
Fie upon you Willis, I enjoyed the new incarnation of the Thundercats.
The new Thundercats have more personality than the combined cast of the first two episodes of Beast Wars.
And I LOVED Beast Wars.
Gotta agree with most of the commenters here – the premiere was great and showed a lot of potential. Did Willis watch the premiere before drawing this, or just the trailers? New Thundercats seems to have much more personality than the old one.
In retrospect, you know what’s hilarious about this comic?
The animation in Thundercats wasn’t pretty at all. Everyone just remembers the opening theme. THAT was gorgeous. Everything else was 80′s standard. It was better animated than He-Man, and about on par with Transformers.
You want the best animated 80s Hasbro show? Visionaries: Knights of the Magical Light
By nature’s hand, by craft, by art
What once was one now fly apart!
Thundercats >>> Transformers in every conceivable way.
Fuck you Ethan. Fuck you.
I only had one Transformer. It was Starscream. In my personal canon, it was built by Vultureman. So there.
Having now watched a substantial amount of the new Thundercats (thank you, Toonami!) I can now say that…yeah, this comic is about right.
Oh how terribly uncouth. What’s he gonna do next, tell us what he thinks of Young Justice episode 10? That fiend!